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Played and finished Avowed. Pretty good game overall, would give it a 7/10 "Good". I'd also probably pick up a sequel, depending on where they intend to go with it (there is plenty of the living lands we haven´t been to, certainly would not mind seeing more of it), though likely not if they're going to charge 70EUR again. Forced dodge/parry based combat are not really my thing and just getting out of the way by just sidestepping an attack not being a real option kind of annoyed me. Aggro rules, if there are any, are rather opaque. There really did not seem to be any consistency on who mobs focus on. Even if you're in another room there´d be one that magically would chase you down to beat your skull in. Anyway, it obviously wasn't enough of a bother for me to not finish the game, but expletives were used at time. I thought the overall story was intriguing, though I do feel they dropped a bit too much information too early, by the end of the first area, if you're a bit of a completionist, you pretty much know the gist of what is going on and it feels as if the rest of the game just fills in the outline. The Scatterscarp major decision kinda felt icky to me, especially a scholar PC and/or Giatta should've been able to give more insight as to the consequences of one of the choices. It just felt like the devs were actively trying to rope you into a specific decision. The whole political angle to things, on the other hand, felt like it turned out a lot more black and white than I had hoped, which was a bit of a shame. Endgame choice While you appear "stuck" with your companions I did enjoy the ability to "agree to disagree" with them. That said there were, especially later in the game, some jarring inconsistencies in their reactions, where they'd praise you for something when it is happening and then scold you when talking about it in camp, or vice-versa. There was also the one quest near the end that made absolutely zero sense (the one with the stolen books in the archives) as you're given absolutely zero context so you're just making a decision blindly resulting in companion reactions that entirely out of left field. Thankfully that was the exception. Anyway, enjoyed my time with the game, would recommend (but not at the launch price). Aside from that I played through what is available of Subnautica 2 so far. Mostly it is more Subnautica, so if you didn´t like the prior ones, well, don't bother, but if you did, good times! The one thing that sort of annoyed me is the amount of hostile wildlife compared to the first one(s). I feel it cheapens the experience. It's a bit hard to explain, but feeling vulnerable and avoiding enemies as you didn´t know how dangerous they actually were felt like a big part of the earlier games. Having bits taken out of you on the regular kinda makes it less scary, if that makes sense? Curious to see how the game develops but they're off to a good start at least.

Project Hail Mary Really good. My wife and I both liked it a lot and shes not usually a fan of "sci-fi".

I was away for a while but yeah:

In a first for me, I am thrilled to report that one of my bird houses has produced a second nesting pair of this season. The first pair produced two chicks and then everyone moved out (I think) and now a new pair (I think) has moved in. I often wonder if the same birds come back but its impossible to differentiate between sparrows and Ive got a lot of them around here.

I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? "No!" says the quest marker, it belongs to the impatient. "No!" says the in-game GPS, it belongs to the blind. "No!" says the witcher sense, it belongs to the stupid. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Gothic. The Gothic Remake Shows What's Wrong With Modern Games

Celebrating my 50th birthday. 👴🏼

Finished Mafia Definitive Edition. I wasn't going crazy, they did change the story quite a bit. The ending was pretty good. I'm going to play Mafia 3 next.

Mafia - I'm playing the redone original. I finished it before the remake, and I remember enjoying it, but I really don't remember the story at all. It's well done though. The city feels alive and the story is solid. I bought the 3rd game with it as a pack (already owned 2) so I might play that next.

I started Void Marauders. xcom clone in space. The plot is literally that you are searching for an artifact that will make you king of the (space) pirates.

Still playing Cyberpunk 2077. The loot system is boring. Also decided to give Postal 4 another shot and I am very happy decided to do so: the recent patch finally made the game playable and I am liking it so far. I also bought Dead island 2 Ultimate Edition based on what @BruceVC had to say about it. It was on sale for only 7 bucks.

I get that all the time, minus the region change. Just delete YT cookies. Every time I close/open my desktop browser, YT's home page is black/no thumbnails and tells me to search/watch so they can figure out what I like. >.> Based on my tablets "cookies remain" action, while YT's "personalized" algorithm has always been poo, the last 4-6 months it's been even more poo - like they changed how it works recently perhaps (not surprising ofc).

YouTube thinks I am a Russian in Finland, is rather funny

This randomly popped up on youtube in incognito, well not this video specifically but Asmongold reacting to it. 😂 So it's double the dose. Going on yt with a fresh algorithm is an experience, especially if you change regions.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance2 Full playthrough took me a bit over 150h, and I enjoyed every 2nd of it. My only disappointment is some of the ending I got - for one I was aiming to play honourable Henry but according to the game (and my imaginary parents) I was quite a scoundrel nonetheless. Apparently I stole quite a bit and according to my stats killed over 50 civilians.... though fair enough. I not upset about it per-say, but I was thinking about playing scoundrel Henry for my 2nd playthrough, and now I feel like I should try good Henry again, especially as I can miss on some quests now. There are also some odd things. Like being judged for unnecessarily pursuing revenge by killing the traitor, while the only reason I did that was to save a comrade he was torturing. The game didn't even give me an option to knock him out and lethal option was the only one available. Apparently you are supposed to talk to him, duel him and then you have an option to let him go (after which he alerts the camp to your presence). Which 1) taking away systemic options for the same of contrived scripted choice - not cool, 2) I mean... at the moment two of us are on the very dangerous mission and sabotaging it means loosing not only our lives but everyone defending in the castle. If there was a justified kill in KCD2, it probably was this one. A more disappointing bit though, is that the game didn't recognize my devotion to Theresa. I withhold from romancing and sleeping with anyone for the whole playthrough and mentioned Theresa whenever I could but she still wasn't an option at the end. I suspect I messed up at the very start of playthrough as I meant to be modest when asked about my romantic life, while the game interpreted it as not romanced Theresa in KCD1. That hurts more, as I will definitely want to explore romance options for my 2nd playthrough. oh well. That aside - what a game. It has a bit of Baldur's Gate2 symptom - it's clearly a richer, more polished and expansive game then the original and overall superior in gameplay and storytelling, but I missed a bit roughness of KCD1. A more friendly progression in KCD2 means the world doesn't feel nearly as threatening, and considering the sheer size of the tile, I think Henry gets good at stuff a bit too quickly. Entire latter part of the playthrough was me choosing which maxed out stat I want to use, most of the time. In general, I wish there was far more choice to be made. I think core system with skills raising as we use them and perks is fine, but that we don't really have to choose much to me is. In the end, in most cases you will be able to get every perk in most skill trees, and that is just not very interesting. However I choose to play Henry, he will likely end up the same, unless I am really picky on what quests I do and how I approach situations. I wonder if a non-completionist playthrough would change how I feel about it, but at the moment I feel KCD could beneift from branching skill trees and some limit in progression. Anyway, nitpicks here and there. Masterstrike still trivializes combat on your end, while your opponents using it strongly punishes exploring other options. Overall loved it, and feel and urge to boot KCD1 turn on hardcore mode and do another full playthrough. Being sad when a 100+h game ends is I think the best recommendation I can get.

I finished Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened after about 20 hours It was incredibly short but still fun. The detective mechanics grow on you and how you find clues really becomes engaging Its gets a solid 60\100 on the " BruceVC game rating system " Now Im playing the new version of Temple of Elemental Evil I first played it in 2006 before I had a dedicated gaming PC and I used my work laptop. I cant remember if I finished it but I do remember I loved it and the Greyhawk setting which is my 2nd favorite D&D gameworld and D&D is overall my favorite ruleset I used this Steam mod guide to configure ToEE and I also installed Co8 and Temple+ so Im playing that version and not SNEG. I recommend this guide for anyone wanting to understand the different install options and how to mod the game https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3623934050 I created my 6 characters manually, its great fun micromanaging everything. I did have to review some D&D rules just to remind myself of a few things My party consists of fighter barbarian cleric rogue wizard sorcerer Lets see how things progress 🐲

World Cup Tourists Meet A*M*E*R*I*C*A

Went to see Project Hail Mary in a theater in San Fran. Then drove back. Had dinner some random diner on the way back. Quite a drive for a movie, but got me out and I feel a tad better. Hubby's currently unable/unwilling to do anything like that still (back) so I'm going to have to learn to do some activities alone. Which sucks imo. When is that surgeon going to call us.

Before Trumps second presidency I would have believed this is fake news ...but now Im not so sure. It could be real

Loved the strike series so this is great stuff!

Damn it, I could have saved $10 if I waited 12 years.

That's what happens to fragmented markets: There's fewer space for "one size fits all product". Same as in music and the decline of the omnipresent super star that everybody agrees on. Or as a wise dev once put it: "A game made for everyone is a game made for no one." Personally, I think that's a good thing. Whilst there's overall TOO many releases now even to keep track of, there is a game and a catalogue to build for pretty much everyone. Back in the mid 2000s to mid 2010s, that plain wasn't the case. As the increasingly fewer monolithic publishers and even physical stores dictated what got funded, made -- and eventually played... RPG devs stopped making games like Baldur's Gate 'because retailers told us no one wanted to buy them', says New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity director Josh Sawyer | PC Gamer

But this also means that the game developers and publishers aren't solely to blame for where we are today. The gaming public bears a good proportion of the blame as well. People these days, generally, have ridiculously unrealistic expectations and demands, are very entitled, and are intolerantly opinionated (as in, everything should be what I want and not what someone else wants, or else ...!).

I hate when I buy something on steam and I forget to check if it's on gog. Guess now I found out how Steam refunds work...

I pretty much agree with him (he's talking about larger big-name publishers/devs). Quarterly report pleasing shareholders models, Covid period breeding more inflated expectations, short sighted decisions. Consumers having gazillions of games and backlogs to choose from vs. spending new/full-price. Consumers being fed up with various things (mass current loss of consumer trust), leading to much more "I'll wait for a year, when it's fixed/done and on sale" which cycles into not getting pleasing quarterly reports for new releases, and so on.

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/137984-unique-helmets-lost-those-enchant-after-hexform-of-the-helpless-beast-irrevocably. Following up on this with findings from the above thread. I can confirm the loss of headgear enchantment is indeed part of the same bug! From several attempts of throwing a character at Sigilmaster Auranic with or without Stands of Favor, the headgear enchantments disappear only when neckless was equipped with the spell in effect. It does seem to be a bit of a luck based thing from what I have seen. Either you'll lose all your equipment except for the item that reduces hostile duration, or lose just the headgear enchantment. Though on one occasion I lost headgear enchantment and Strand of Favor. The good news is that since it seems stem from the same bug the fix I created seem to address it! 😁

Not news but an approach I find reasonable: https://www.pentadact.com/2026-01-08-15-years-of-indie-dev-in-4-bits-of-advice/ Admittedly, a large cost sink is the visual assets and VA, while the crowd who can spend several thousands on their hardware are also more likely to have $70 of disposable income, but there are more people with $20. That is to say, the lower the system requirements, including the storage, the better for the production costs, the gamers, and the environment.

After looking through the screenshots, I've realised that I "finished" (as in, got pretty far and grew tired of bugs) Retro Abyss. A somewhat meta bullet-hell. The "numbers go up" part and the visual design were enjoyable, the story did not quite land for me (the in-game player seems to be a set character) and the writing was somewhat off in terms of phrasing or translation. The main issue is that the game stopped saving the progress between the sessions at some point and the cut-scenes were unskippable. Decided to let Absinthia be - I really do not like the RPGMaker combat system and the linear story, even if the core party is quite appealing. Replayed I was a Teenage Exocolonist for the "best" ending and got a few more along the way. It is welcome to see a mostly visual novel that takes the advantage of Unity not being a VN-only engine (i.e. you can run around the maps with the keyboard). It is somewhat less enjoyable when you are going from the start to the end and trying to optimise to hit few very specific things, but it was quite nice to see some mid-game endings and the full character endings. Virtue and a Sledgehammer demo. I liked the aesthetic and the presentation, but destroying robots in a forest felt wrong. One must go for the squishy and, most importantly, not-flameable meatbag that had put the robots there. Which, I assume, was the goal, but unachieveable during the demo. Still, reminded me of Johnny Gat.

I don't really understand the gaming industry, I guess. Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed were extremely good games. They told a good story, they were fun to play, and I finished them. Personally I don't want a bunch of games that overstay their welcome. I don't want every game to be a live service that expects you to play for years to come. I want a good 1-4 weeks of entertainment and then I want to move on with my life.

You answered your own question (possibly unintentionally) From your link: UPDATE: In a twist to Dring’s report, Jason Schreier is now reporting that Obsidian is NOT one of the at-risk studios at Xbox. “Despite a report this morning, I can confirm that Obsidian is not in negotiations to avoid shutting down. Plenty of details are still up in the air surrounding the layoffs (picture will be clear on Monday) but Xbox is keeping Obsidian, according to people familiar with the situation.”

Oh yeah, internet blackouts. To us it's normal at this point.

Not clicking on that dumbass' video, will just safely assume it's some crying about woke.

They already have factories in place, in fact they have a stranglehold on lower level/older chip production (they produce 90% of it) and from what I understood they are able to manufacture ddr5. I guess the question is are they able to produce ddr5 at scale...

7 Days to Die, 3.0 experimental - wait, wait - there's a No Experience option. I tested it - zero XP for doing anything. I've lowered XP gain before for gamestage difficulty reasons, but never thought about a "level 1 forever". Oh oh oh, this has possibilities. --the only power progression would be found or crafted higher lvl gear and mods you can use in that gear --the entire skill/perk tree is useless (less meaningful than one might think, but it does make a difference --could also lower gamestage/other to make found loot rarer, and limit or remove Traders, weaken zombie spawns etc to taste. Maybe wandering nomad survivor style vs. looter shooter/tower defense would feel a lot more fun again. Gonna try it.

Happy father's day everyone. I took the family to Disneyland last week. It was expensive, but the crowds were light on 2 of the 3 days. The Star Wars area is amazing and I hung out there as much as possible. We hadn't been in a decade, so I am glad I got it in with them before they become full adults.

It feels the same to me. The gameplay (the way the guns shoot, the gun types and PC movement) and level design are very similar, even the enemies are similar. Saying that it's been a long while since I played Gears of War.

I suppose both have chainsaw attached to a more conventional weapon. And I suppose Space Marine could also be described as third person cover shooter, assuming the Marine is also the cover. 😁

Are Scottish soccer fans drinking all of the beer in Boston? The Tartan Army is drinking the place dry.

Finished Chaos Gate Demon Hunters. I liked it overall, there was enough there to pull me towards the ending. Although I rushed through the last part of it and skipped some available missions that showed up. Missed the 500 days achievement by a couple of days, but apart from that nothing else that I really wanted to do. Could have gotten that too if I didn't prolong the game to get some upgrades, but w/e... I don't see the complaint that there is not enough enemy variety, but I will complain about the boss fights. They are ass and don't feel like bosses at all. I played on normal, but I still should not be able to kill them before they get their turn. They had the idea with the last boss, which was damage gated. So that took some time at least, but it wasn't particularly challenging. Yeah, they sort of seem to not know what they want with the threat mechanics. They did say they plan to expand on it and make it more interesting but so far I agree that it's a step down from the first part. Although I will say that the first part may have been better in that regard simply because it was new and people were interacting with it for the first time. Here, in part 2, people already know what to expect so the feeling of see it for the first time is lost.

Some US FIFA humor

The title should be obvious. I included very few screenshots related to the companions and a lot related to various unexpected or amusing situations. The ratio is probably the opposite. From the 2nd/3rd area, I had to turn the FSR on and it had some sort of sharpening built-in. I like the armour design. Freedom. Kind of. The loading screens look good. Somehow the melee party members manage to hit the Lookout Monkey. Can't beat the skill. The Knightess. Just a random area. The game is a bit rigid with traversal and, while it looks nice on the screenshots, the only way to navigate is with the Tracking vision on (the screenshot above). The boss I have ~140 screenshots on Steam (more locally) and I will try to share them here. Uxantis Olima Peren The Mid-game Spoiler-land Post-mid-game Our talking-tree god is the best god. It offends my sensibilities - these are not machetes. The Expedition 33 reference. The Prince of Persia reference. This is a kukri, not a saber. Stealth All 11 busts. Not the most interesting collectible. End-game

The Outer Worlds 2 is conspicuously absent from Xbox's roadmap despite supposedly having two DLCs planned.

I really hate that babyface. Not sure exactly what it is - maybe the lips? Something about it just looks so weird to me. It's probably supposed to look cute, but it just seems creepy to me.

I think I'm in the end game of the Chaos Gate Demon Hunters. Was able to kill the first of the five bosses in one turn. Kind of rushing through the game, as in I'm not bothering with getting to upgrade everything. Maybe it's because of that, but so far I have not experienced that the lack of enemy variety is bothering me.

yesss!

I'm pretty sure that's a vanilla game issue. You can also keep summoned or "natural" weapons with the help of Spiritshift/Form of the Fearsome Brute, Draining Touch and Minor Blights*. So something with the implementations of "switching forms" and "switching weapons" along the way is not 100% watertight. * for example cast Minor Blights, then shift into an Ogre, then the right Ogre Fists weapon gets replaced by a minor blight - bc. they rotate elemental types and this will summon a new form of blight weapon every time, even when you are shifted and cannot cast, then when the fight ends before the Minor Blights and Fearsome Brute spell runs out you will transform back into your normal form - with an Ogre Fist in your weapon slot which you can use like any other weapon (it's auto scaling). They are actually pretty good because they always interrupt on crit. And they make a funny boink sound when striking with them. Same can be done with spiritshift weapons or the one handed Great Sword of Citzal (PL9 wizard spell). That's all without any mods.

Hey! I'm going to the Bear Pits this winter. Ya wanna come with? 😁

Stuff that caught my attention from SGF (in addition to Alien Iso2 above): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is being developed by Platinum games. Their track record with the IP isn't great, but hopefully they will redeem themselves. I hear ninja Gaiden4 was alright My ex-Naughty Dogs. It will probably not be my thing, but I still found it quite compelling as a watch: Virtua Fighter6 finally got reveal, mostly focused on stuff previous entries didn't have - singleplayer story mode. I will be more curious what the veterans will think of gameplay once we know more of how the game plays. SF6 story mode helped me to get into SF, hopefully this will do the same for VI. Tried VI5 but to me being stuck in training mode and trying to figure things out the hard way just doesn't work. Eh, I hope it is good: SF6 roster reveal is bizzare. 3 newcomers (including story mode wet blanket of an NPC made playable character) plus Tifa. It could be very good - SF6 could use some more newcomers, but it is difficult to be hyped about characters you know nothing about. Also Allegedly no more new story content and it seems no new stages. Capcom is either brewing something big, or seeing how little they can invest in SF6 and still rake the same amount of money. And speaking of Tifa: Day one on PC this time around. Meh, I am mixed on this trilogy - the meta "uuuu we change the narrative" is very frustrating to me and it being the finale could be make or break story wise.